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Salman Rushdie Quotes - Page 20

All Quotes Age Arguing Art Atheism Atheist Belief Betrayal Birth Blasphemy Censorship Challenges Character Childhood Children Choices Christianity Conflict Country Crime Criticism Culture Desire Destiny Doubt Evil Falling In Love Fate Feelings Fighting Film Free Speech Freedom Freedom Of Speech Fun Giving Growing Up Growth Hate Heart Hell History Home Honesty Human Nature Identity Imagination Islam Journey Language Liberty Life Literature Loss Love Lying Magic Memories Mountain Optimism Past Perception Perspective Pride Prophet Reading Reality Religion Revolution Running Safety Satire School Shame Silence Son Soul Speed Storytelling Struggle Study Terrorism Tolerance Values Victory Violence War Water Worry Writing

Many of us didn't believe in the image of bin Laden as a wandering Old Man of the Mountains, living on plants and insects in an inhospitable cave somewhere on the porous Pakistan-Afghan border.

Many of us didn't believe in the image of bin Laden as a wandering Old Man of the Mountains, living on plants and insects in an inhospitable cave somewhere on the porous Pakistan-Afghan border.

Believe, Men, Mountain

I can walk into a bookshop and point out a number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn't occur to me to burn the bookshop down. If you don't like a book, read another book. If you start reading a book and you decide you don't like it, nobody is telling you to finish it.

Book, Reading, Numbers

Matthew Wiener on Mad Men writes the entire series before they start shooting, and if you have that, then what you can do with character and story is not at all unlike what you can do in a novel.

Writing, Character, Men

"Salman Rushdie says TV dramas comparable to novels" by Vanessa Thorpe, www.theguardian.com. June 11, 2011.

Captain Ahab drowned, he reminded himself; it was the trimmer, Ishmael, who survived.

Ahab, Captains, Ishmael

Salman Rushdie (1989). “The Satanic Verses”, New York, N.Y. : Viking

There is a point beyond which conciliation looks like capitulation. I do not believe I passed that point, but others have thought otherwise.

Believe, Looks, Capitulation

"Excerpts From Rushdie's Address: 1,000 Days 'Trapped Inside a Metaphor'". Speech at Columbia University, archive.nytimes.com. December 12, 1991.

India, the new myth--a collective fiction in which anything was possible, a fable rivalled only by the two other mighty fantasies: money and God.

Two, Fables, India

Salman Rushdie (2010). “Midnight's Children”, p.150, Random House

Airport security exists to guard us against terrorist attacks.

Airports, Terrorist, Airport Security

"Satanic view that equates democracies and dictatorships" by Salman Rushdie, www.theguardian.com. December 16, 2012.

Throughout human history, the apostles of purity, those who have claimed to possess a total explanation, have wrought havoc among mere mixed-up human beings.

History, Purity, Havoc

Salman Rushdie (1990). “In good faith”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

People don't like being around despair. Our tolerance for the truly hopeless, for those who are irredeemably broken by life is strictly limited. The sob stories we like are the ones that end before we're bored.

People, Broken, Bored

The only thing worse than a bad review from the Ayatollah Khomeini would be a good review from the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Would Be, Reviews, Khomeini

I determined to make my peace with Islam, even at the cost of my pride. Those who were surprised and displeased by what I did perhaps failed to see that ... I wanted to make peace between the warring halves of the world, which were also the warring halves of my soul.

Pride, Soul, Islam

"Excerpts From Rushdie's Address: 1,000 Days 'Trapped Inside a Metaphor'". Address at Columbia University, www.nytimes.com. December 12, 1991.

The sixty-minute drama form has become very rich.

Drama, Sixty Minutes, Rich

The history of life was not the bumbling progress - the very English, middle-class progress - Victorian thought had wanted it to be, but violent, a thing of dramatic, cumulative transformations: in the old formulation, more revolution than evolution.

Class, Progress, History Of Life

Salman Rushdie (1989). “The Satanic Verses”, New York, N.Y. : Viking

My first novel - the novel I wrote before 'Midnight's Children' - feels, to me, now, very - I mean, I get embarrassed when I see people reading it. You know, there are some people who, bizarrely, like it. Which I'm, you know, I'm happy for.

Children, Reading, Mean

"TalkAsia" with Monita Rajpal, www.cnn.com. February 8, 2013.

I'm a world expert on superhero comics. I think maybe only Michael Chabon knows more than me.

Thinking, Superhero, Experts

When you start writing about the stuff that is the central experience of your own life, you can talk about whatever you want, in whatever way you want.

Writing, Want, Stuff

The thing that I think was very brave of my younger self was that he decided he would be an idiot. Just persevere. That feels brave to me: deciding that I'm going to damn well be this person that I've set my heart on being.

Heart, Thinking, Self

What I've Learned: Salman Rushdie" by Cal Fussman, www.esquire.com. December 31, 2005.

There is nothing like a War for the reinvention of lives.

War, Reinvention

I have to say that after some initial resistance, I'm now a complete 'Game of Thrones' addict.

Games, Thrones, Resistance

I have been a film buff all my life and believe that the finest cinema is fully the equal of the best novels.

Believe, Cinema, Film

I've always prided myself on my discipline as a writer. I do it like a job. I get up in the morning and go to my desk.

Morning, Jobs, Discipline

"The Bookers' favourite". Interview with Andrew Anthony, www.theguardian.com. April 5, 2008.

I'm not a big fan of there being voiceovers in movies. I really prefer it when the film tells it story.

Fans, Stories, Film

I'm no friend of Tony Blair's and I consider the Middle East policies of the United States and the UK fatal.

No Friends, Middle East, United States

"Terror Is Glamour". "Spiegel" Interview, www.spiegel.de. August 28, 2006.

It's obvious that I come down on the side of free speech for anybody's work.

Speech, Sides, Free Speech

When you are writing a book, it feels as if you are simply concentrating on the world of the book and that whatever is happening in your personal life is outside the room, as it were. But maybe that's just the way you have to talk to yourself to make it possible.

Book, Writing, World

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